Bone Crier's Dawn by Kathryn Purdie

Author:Kathryn Purdie [Purdie, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062798824
Google: DhLuDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0062798804
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-03-29T23:00:00+00:00

22

Bastien

SOUL AFTER SOUL RUSHES TOWARD me, past me. Rain keeps pouring onto the bridge. I fight to stay balanced on the slick limestone. The souls could knock me into the pit at any moment.

Pain throbs behind my eyes, and I strain harder to focus. I blink again and again. The souls glow with a strange color. Chazoure? Ailesse described it to me once. How am I seeing it? Why are she and Sabine lit up with it, too?

I yank harder, desperate to save Ailesse. My muscles burn with a surprising spike of strength. Ailesse jerks three inches away from the black dust and screams out in pain. I startle and immediately ease up my hold. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I could have torn her arm from its socket just now. I’ve never felt so much adrenaline pounding through my body, and I’m strangely out of step with it. I don’t know how to use my own strength properly.

On the other side of the black dust, I find Odiva staring back at me. I swallow. This is the first time I’ve seen her since she jumped through the Gate.

She’s still disturbingly beautiful, with her black eyes and her crown made from a noctule bat skull and the vertebrae of an asp viper. But she’s different, too. More openly vicious. Colder. Even deadlier. Those dark eyes bore into me as she pulls us closer with incredible power. “Pitiful boy,” she sneers at me. “Always following Ailesse into danger like a besotted fool.”

A few crass retorts come to mind, but I keep my mouth shut. She doesn’t deserve to be spoken to. I fix my energy on Ailesse instead. “Hang on,” I tell her. “We’ve got you.”

She slides out another inch. Rain streams off the ends of her glowing hair. Her pained eyes lock on me. “Bastien,” she rasps on the thinnest breath. Somehow I hear it, just like other things that should be too quiet for my ears. The sound of my heartbeat. Higher pitches than I thought were possible. Souls screaming from far away. A new song . . .

It travels out of the Underworld and grows louder. The screams seem to hush. Ailesse’s face fades. I’m only aware of the song . . . then another song that harmonizes with it. They both fight for my attention.

I stagger on my feet. I veer toward Elara’s Gate, then Tyrus’s. My pulse races. I want to—no, I need to—go and explore each realm.

Odiva’s mouth curves. “You hear the music, don’t you, boy, the siren songs of the Beyond?”

Sabine’s hand flinches beneath mine. “Shut it out, Bastien.”

“If you listen closely enough,” Odiva continues, “you will feel the gods’ communion with you.”

No. I blow out a tense breath and do as Sabine says. I struggle to block the sound. I put my energy into tugging Ailesse toward me instead.

“Do you know what I hear?” Odiva asks.

I won’t look at her, so I look at Ailesse. Every muscle in her face, neck, and arms quivers from the pressure she’s under.

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